Episode 68: Mr. Hardy Catches 'Em All

   I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause. 

   Ah, Pokémon. A staple of my childhood, and something I still enjoy to this day as a 22-year-old man. Perhaps no franchise of fiction had a bigger part of my childhood than SpongeBob SquarePants, Pokémon, and Sonic the Hedgehog. 

   I collected cards and battled them with my best friend (at the time) Jackson, and played a ton of the games on GameBoy, DS, and even the odd ones on GameCube, Wii, and a little on Switch (Pokémon is typically a mobile series - so there aren't a lot of Pokémon games on home consoles, but there are a few). I even got a 3DS not that long ago for the main purpose of being able to play generations 6 and 7. 

    But, you see, I've found my interest in Pokémon wanes following gen 5 and pretty much isn't there around 8. My knowledge of gen 5 even isn't that super strong, and my knowledge of 6 and 7 is even weaker. 

    I'm saying "generations" a lot, and for those outside of the Pokémon lore, that might be confusing, so I'll explain it. Pokémon is separated into different generations. Generations start with landmark new games, which are different "versions" of the same new story, with new Pokémon. The different versions feature different ways to get new Pokémon and other slight variations. For example, Gen 1 started with Red and Blue, Gen 2 with Gold and Silver, Gen 3 with Ruby and Sapphire, and so on. New generations of Pokémon come every few years. Now that I've explained that, on to the main meat of the episode.

    When I first got into Pokémon as a wee child armed with a GameBoy Advance SP, there were only three generations. My very first Pokémon game was FireRed, which was a Gen 3 remake of a Gen 1 game (Red). I also got Emerald, which is also a Gen 3 game. Not too long after this came Gen 4, which consisted of Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver. The last two were remakes of the Gen 2 games Gold and Silver. I played the crap out of Pokémon Platinum. To this day Pokémon Platinum is my favorite video game of all time. I also played Diamond and SoulSilver. 

   Gen 4 is my favorite Pokémon generation. I think Pokémon peaked there. Admittedly, I probably have some nostalgia blinders on, but those games were near-perfect and just thinking about Platinum makes me wanna play it for the 90-kajillionth time.

But what went wrong?

  Why does my love for Pokémon only really consist of the first four generations? Where's the passion for 5-9? Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty big fan of Gen 5 and the games I played from 6 and 7 were pretty solid. But I haven't played anything from 8 or 9. 

   For one, Gen 5 came out a time when I was going out of a Pokémon phase. I was a kid getting new interests so it kinda slid by me more than it should have. But I played Black and to this day I think it's a pretty excellent game. So Gen 5 is kind of within my passion for Pokémon. It's sort of the bridge between my love and my obscurity. 

   Starting in Gen 6, Pokémon starts to change for the worse, in my Pokémon. They lose the simple, battling spirit of the first five generations. The subsequent generations after 5 start introducing wacky new combat aspects like mega evolutions, dynamax, and I believe Gen 9 added some new battle variation but don't quote me on that.

   They tried too hard to be new and inventive when what they already had was great. Some things don't need theatrics and big changes. The simple one-on-one, turn-based battles between powerful creatures made Pokémon special. 

    

It's too much

   We do not need nine generations of Pokémon. There are over 1,000 now. My prime-time as a child Pokémon fan, there were less than 500. What they should've done, instead of constantly pumping out new Pokémon and new regions, is just flesh out the same four or five. Look at other successful video game franchises like Super Mario or Mortal Kombat. They add new characters and things, sure, but they for the most part have a core set of characters, a core lore, and they flesh those out. 

    Pokémon could've made more adventures in Greer generations and found new ways to make those generations revitalized and keep them fresh. But they decided instead to stretch the franchise thing and keep pumping out new original stuff.

In Conclusion

   If you like Pokémon Gens 6-9, good for you. Honestly. More power to you. Keep gaming. I'm just explaining why my interest kinda dissipates after Gen 5. It's kind of impossible to catch 'em all when there's over 1,000 of them. And that was what the charm of Pokémon was always supposed to be - catching them all.

   I still love Pokémon and probably always will. The games are still stupid fun to play. I advise all of you to go out and become the Pokémon champion.